In my Granny's Honor

Many of you may know that on March 14, 2011, I lost my granny.  My granny was a great woman who had a big heart.  The last few years of her life was spent in a nursing home not know who anyone was.  She suffered from Alzheimer's.  My parents would go to visit her, and she may know who my dad (her son) was for a split second, but then forgot.  She would then get upset for not knowing who he was.  She could not eat or drink without assistance.  In all honesty, I did not visit much over the last several years.  Once I heard how bad her condition was, I didn't want to upset her or upset myself by seeing someone I cared for in a state like that.  My memories of her were good and that's how I want it to stay.  The picture below is possibly the last picture I have with her (which is from my wedding).

Look at how happy she looks!  Isn't she beautiful.  The handsome guy to the left of her is actually my Pappy, which I lost a couple of years ago.  Such happiness in both of them.  This is the way I want to remember them. 

In honor of my granny and her condition, I am posting the website to the Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org).  Please look at this website and learns the signs of the condition and be aware of them. 

I love you Granny and you will always be in my heart.

New Addition to the Family...and it's not the Baby!!

On March 19, 2011, we welcomed a sister-in-law to the family. Russell's little brother, Sam, married an awesome girl Kaitlin. They gave us the honor of allowing Colleen to be a part of their big day and be the flower girl. Colleen took this job very seriously and did a great job. I don't have the pics from the photographer, but I took some pics during the preparation and then my mom took some family pics since we don't get all dressed up that often!! The slideshow of all the pictures is below!! Once I get the photographers pictures, I will get those on here!

My Little Soccer Star

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since the last post and Colleen has had two more soccer games!  What a difference a few months makes!  Colleen is a completely different soccer play this Spring than she was in the Fall!  In the Fall, all she wanted to do was play goalie and did not see much action.  Well, after the first game as goalie this time and hardly any action...her mindset changed.  Apparently she got bored and wanted to go after the ball.  Well, that meant she had to "toughen" up a little bit and not get upset whenever she gets pushed down or falls down.  At her next practice, she not only surprised me, but she surprised her coaches who called her a brute!  She was rough and tough and was ready to play ball and boy did she!!  I am posting the slide shows from each of the last two games.  Russell and I have kinda become the team photographers, so we take LOTS of pictures at each game!  So, sit back and enjoy the show!  Watching a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds play soccer is very entertaining!!

The first set of pictures is from March 12



The next set is from March 26 (today)



More to come soon!!

Colleen Update

Many of you already know that Colleen played soccer through the YMCA during the fall.  Well, she liked it so much, we are doing it again this spring.  We have had one practice and one game.  The game was played in 47 degree weather, with a feels like of 41-43.  EVERYONE was cold, but the kids played a good hard game!!  Colleen played goalie during two quarters of the game and did pretty well considering she was freezing her little bottom off!  Then she got a chance to play the field running and kicking the ball and did really well.  She enjoyed that so much, she says she no longer wants to be goalie b/c she wants to run and kick the ball!!  We shall see what happens over the next few weeks!!

Her team is Seattle and the color is BRIGHT green!!  The picture was taken with my cell phone and does not do the brightness of that green justice at all.  Colleen seems to have grown so much since the fall!  After soccer, she will be playing t-ball and is pretty excited about it too.

Stay tuned for more soccer updates and pictures!!

Baby Payne Update

Well, it has been two months since I last updated and that update was announcing our big news that the Payne Family is expanding.  We have had a couple of doctor appointments since then and all is well with Baby Payne.  The heartbeat is great.  We have enjoyed getting to actually see Baby Payne through a couple of ultrasounds.  I think I see a slight resemblance to it's Big Sister in one of these!!!

 

Also, our doctor recommends some genetic testing for all her patients and one of the tests involved an ultrasound with a perinatal doctor.  During that ultrasound, the technician switched to 3D mode for a few minutes and so we got a couple of 3D images of Baby Payne.  These images were done at around 11 weeks, so to some people, they look a little scary!  But to us, they are our little blessing!!

Colleen is still very excited about being a big sister!  We can't wait to find out the gender of the baby so we can start calling it by a name!!  We have that appointment scheduled for April 4 and we are SUPER EXCITED!!  I will post the news and names at that time!  In the meantime, make sure and check out the Gender Poll on the upper left part of the blog and vote on what you think Baby Payne is!!